Your Top 10 Movies of All Time?

[90MPH]

TDK is far from perfect..the more I watch it, the more overrated it is. Batman Begins is THE Batman movie.

Yeah I agree with that. Dark knight is a very good film but I don't know why it's rated as the GOAT by some. Heath Ledger acting was very good though.

I also thought the first one was better, especially in terms of story telling.

 

[GoUgandaCranes]

I can never make such a list because the recency affect is extreme with me. However I've gone through the thread and some of the movies listed are truly amazing.

A genre by genre top of the memory recall for me would be

Animated: Toy Story 1, Little Prince (this made me go all like whats my purpose in life)

Action: The Matrix (1) - Terminator 2, Predator, Tremors (that's just a lovely movie idky)

Comedy: Bill Murray movies. By default, if Bill Murray is in a movie, it's better than all other movies.

Horror: Saw (the first one was just mind numbing)

There are certain movies that you watch and they temporarily make you go wow but over a long run they wear of. I know everyone loves it but Shawshank Redemption was like that for me, wow then, 14 minutes later I didn't care that much about it.

One movie that I can never forget is an old black and white Hindi movie called Bawarchi. idk when and how I saw it, even saw it in bits but I just truly love the feel and the message of that movie. I've literally lived all my life in that fantasy in a way and still living it like that. Saw it years ago as a child and still in awe. Don't even remember all of it exactly, but the aura is such that I don't want to watch it again not to ruin it.

 

[marlonbrowndo]

TDK is far from perfect..the more I watch it, the more overrated it is. Batman Begins is THE Batman movie.

The more I watch the dark knight the more I like it

 

[marlonbrowndo]

Here are my 10 favorite pics, from the POV of an Indian Fan of Hollywood Movies . They are not judged solely on artistic merit . Also an attempt has been made to make the genres non repetitive in the list . Its more about how I felt about those movies and the impact they have made on my mind at various stages of my life.

1) The Godfather Part1 & 2 (tied)

I see them as one movie itself. Too good to separate and put either of them anywhere else .

Part one may have had the best cast and some of the greatest characters ever put on film (Don Corleone, Sonny, Luca etc etc ) and some of the greatest ever moments in cinema(the assasination scene, the baptism sequence) ! But part two as a whole was the better film.

Perfection in acting , casting and direction.

2) The Dark Knight

The absolute peak of comic book cinema ! May not be bettered ever !

Perfectly captures the essence of the Batman universe characters , especially the Joker, Harvey and Gordon . All the adjectives used for no.1 stand here as well . Greatness in acting , scripting. Amazing score and incredible moments. One of cinemas greatest villainous acts by Heath Ledger .!

Nolan is truly the most significant filmmaker of the 2K generation.

3) Terminator 2 : Judgement Day

Terminator one is critically the superior film. But the lack of a big budget may have hampered that one from reaching its max. potential. If you thought a movie about warring machines and cyborgs , full of gunfights and acted by one of the most wooden faced actors in Hollywood, would have zero emotional quotient or humanity , James Cameron could prove you wrong !! The final pain you feel when T600 dips into the molten metal will bring tears to most peoples eyes.. Absolute science fiction masterpiece from Cameron

4) The Lion King

My favourite movie as kid. Animated cinema may have scaled further peaks via the Toy Story movies or the Incredibles. But this movies shows why Disney still rules the animated universe. Beautifully crafted movie with some incredible emotional moments (Mufasa's death for eg.) . Great animation (not much help from computers back then ) and incredible music.

5) The Empire Strikes Back

Hollywood's greatest ever popcorn flick. "A new Hope" may have prototyped the hollywood blockbuster formula (fantastical locations, special effects, endearing characters and vast worlds ), but "empire.." did it to perfection . Still remains the gold standard of what popular cinema is expected to do . Special mention to the great and memorable characters and perhaps cinemas greatest villain in Darth Vader.

6) Saving Private Ryan

Helmed by arguably Hollywood's most versatile and successful filmmaker (only Stanley Kubric and Scorcese come close in terms of versatility and Cameron in terms of sheer success ) ,Saving Private Ryan is arguably the greatest war movie ever. The opening 30 mins, is generally considered the greatest opening in cinema .

Amazing cast, especially the lead performance by Tom hanks. No war movie could put you into the middle of the battlefield and its emotions like this one did.

The film-making brilliance of Spielberg is in full flow throughout, aided by masterful cinematography and a haunting score by John Williams.

7) Memento

Christopher Nolan Appears once again in the list with his earlier (less mainstream) masterpiece and arguably his best film ! I consider this as a spiritual predecessor to the brand of cinema he took mainstream with Inception and Prestige . Not as "big" a movie like Inception in terms of concept or scale. But is an absolutely brilliant and confusing piece of cinema.

8) Raiders of the Lost Arc

Spielberg Makes the list again with a completely different genre of film. Showcases his talent as a filmamker in ample, in a time when CGI wasn't available to bail filmamkers out .The story , action and settings have had countless imitators in film and video games as well(

George Lucas's greatest work outside his original Star war's Trilogy (he wrote it ).

Nominated for Best picture , among the top 3 Action films ever and Indiana Jones is considered one of fictions greatest characters alongside Sherlock holmes and Harry Potter..

9) The Matrix

May surprise some of the posters from the west here , but "The Matrix" has influenced modern cinema like very few movies could. It showed the world (us desis) what "next level" means in hollywood film-making. It also ushered a new era in terms of Action movies and effects.

The action sequences and characterizations have been imitated and referenced in far too many movies across the globe. So are some of the lines . As a movie it was as far ahead and futuristic as a hollywood movie could be.

10) Forest Gump :

One of the greatest feel good cinema's ever. Brilliant movie with humanity at heart. Such an endearing character in Forest, played by Tom Hanks. Brings a smile to your face every time.

Notable mentions :

11) Psycho
12) Titanic
12) Goodfellas
13) Alien
14) Pulp Fiction
15) 2001 a Space Odyssey

PS: I have not seen Shwashank Redemption or the LOTR trilogy to give an assessment on them. So they don't make my list. Many great crime films have been left out to avoid repetition. Did not add all time classics like "Gone with The wind " and "Casablanca" for not having seen them .

Good list

 

[shaz619]

I too think it is Nolan's best ! Just played it safe here..

I believe Memento is underrated by many because its a small movie and the story is confusing for many . It's got none of the features of what the outer world (non-US/western audience) associates with "Hollywood", like the grand scale ,CGI or sophisticated concepts....

But Memento is the finest expression of Nolan's ability as a "storyteller" . But in terms of impact as a "filmmaker" I would put Inception on top. He had taken Hollywood movies to a whole new plane with it . In a long time I had seen a movie that just made you go WOW ! Did hollywood just pull that off. ?. The last time a movie had put me in that kind of awe was the Matrix. But it was a more flawed product .

To pull off a movie of that scale take tremendous guts and self-belief from the part of the filmmaker. I remember Nolan saying in an Interview that The first 2 Batman movies of his , were an attempt to test the waters of big hollywood cinema , but "inception" was what he had always Aimed for.

The Dark Knight may be considered a better film by many , but it had the backing of decades of mythology and stories and some of the greatest fictional characters (Batman I think is the greatest hero , with the greatest villians in comics)
already out there for him to tap into !. But "Inception" he built out from the ground up! That took huge guts .

And he, unlike his contemporaries, does his movies by giving full justice to his vision. There is little proof of corporate interference (see Avengers 2 and Joss whedon ) or being flummoxed by the scale/material (as in most Zack Snyder films) or too much pandering to the bottom line (Michael Bay ! ) in Nolans films (although TDKR had a bit of the last ).

This is why Nolan is the only modern filmmakers who now sits in the pantheon of the Kubrick's and Spielberg's and Cameron's. These people have single-handedly pushed the envelope of hollywood and its capabilities (not just in the traditional acting-scripting-direction sense, otherwise Tarantino and many others make it ) time and time again, and cleared the path for many others to follow..

Now coming back to TDK VS Memento VS Inception

TDK is the most popular ,most acclaimed and most memorable of the 3 . But as I said above it was not all Nolan. But the other two were. Inception had many twists and turns added intentionally to it with the sole aim of confusing /convoluting the film. But Memento on the other hand has a near perfect explanantion for everything in the film . There are very few holes in the plot and the climax is an absolute stunner . ! So as a film you could put TDK above but Memento is "NOlan's" best .
Insomnia and Prestige are remakes and interstellar fell short of what it aimed for. I'm expecting a lot from Dunkirk. If it can be Nolans "Saving Private Ryan" he'll consolidate his position on top.



That's pretty much what I tried to do.

I knew straight away you were playing it safe Memento was a movie which came out in Nolan's early years so it wasn't a high profile release, if it were to come out now it would be rated by the fans a bit more. Storytelling is the heart of a movie for me and I look for it more then anything else, Nolan was able to display his range on a limited budget; see my review in the members interview for why it's my favourite movie ever. I actually had to watch it for my A-Level in Psychology and was in awe throughout.

One thing I need to say is that perhaps TDK is the best batman film made in the series, when it came out I watched it in the cinema 2-3 times; however! after many years I find myself re-watching Batman Begins a lot more then TDK! honestly speaking, since TDK was released I've only watched it again once. But Batman Begins, I find myself going back to it a lot more then others. We also need to give Tim Burton his due, were it not for his depiction of the character who knows what would have come off bats! Nolan has taken all the glory but Burton's depiction was executed beautifully in the confines of the comic book world. Batman and Batman Returns are excellent movies in the super-hero genre. Nolan's series blurs the line between super-hero genre, crime and thriller. What makes Christopher Nolan such a great director is execution, Jonathon Nolan is just as much of a genius if not better; Memento was based on a short-story called Memento Mori. It takes two to tango and Jonathon deserves his due as well.

 

[SandyB]

One thing I need to say is that perhaps TDK is the best batman film made in the series, when it came out I watched it in the cinema 2-3 times; however! after many years I find myself re-watching Batman Begins a lot more then TDK! honestly speaking, since TDK was released I've only watched it again once. But Batman Begins, I find myself going back to it a lot more then others. We also need to give Tim Burton his due, were it not for his depiction of the character who knows what would have come off bats! Nolan has taken all the glory but Burton's depiction was executed beautifully in the confines of the comic book world. Batman and Batman Returns are excellent movies in the super-hero genre. Nolan's series blurs the line between super-hero genre, crime and thriller. What makes Christopher Nolan such a great director is execution, Jonathon Nolan is just as much of a genius if not better; Memento was based on a short-story called Memento Mori. It takes two to tango and Jonathon deserves his due as well.

Absolutely! Till Nolan came along, I felt the first Batman was the best comic book movie I had ever seen.. Burton paved way for the level of darkness and serious themes that we see now in comic book films . . it used to be all silly campiness before..

 

[nazia08]

I just like to watch old hollywood movies.

The Goodfellas (1990)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
Drive (2011)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Rocky 4 (1985)
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Trueman Show (1998)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Jeff Who Lives At Home (2011)

 

[shaz619]

I just like to watch old hollywood movies.

The Goodfellas (1990)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
Drive (2011)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Rocky 4 (1985)
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Trueman Show (1998)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Jeff Who Lives At Home (2011)

Great list, I always forget to include Rocky 4 in me top 10; it's easily my favourite Rocky movie despite it not being as well received in comparison to parts 1-3.

 

[shaz619]

Absolutely! Till Nolan came along, I felt the first Batman was the best comic book movie I had ever seen.. Burton paved way for the level of darkness and serious themes that we see now in comic book films . . it used to be all silly campiness before..

I need to watch them again, may have enjoyed Batman Returns more then one of the movies from Nolans depiction. I thoroughly enjoyed the origin story of Bats and how Nolan injected life into the character in the 2000's, in that sense Batman Begins falls under the radar.

 

[chacha kashmiri]

Face off - when Nicholas cage is john travolta
Shutter island-not the same when you watch it second time
Life-Eddie Murphy framed for life
City of god-slum dog millionaire without the Bollywood effects
Un prophete- film about the Corsican underworld and how a young boy toughens up after nearly getting stabbed
District 13 or b13- purely for the chases and jumps
Scarface- Cuban refugee makes it big based on his balls
A history of violence- an unassuming man is actually a killer
Swordfish-computer hackers being tutored by john travolta
Road to Guantanamo-just to hear Riz Ahmed rap in prison

 

[confused_amoeba]

Psycho
Apocalypse now
Pulp Fiction
2001: A space odyssey
Gone Girl
L'Avventura
A Separation
Mullholland drive
Interstellar
GoodFellas

 

[Barragan]

Enemy of the State
Eyes Wide Shut
Gladiator
Interstellar
Shawshank Redemption
The Godfather
Interstellar
Inception
Fight Club
Cast Away

Also, really enjoy the Sherlock Holmes series, Pirates of the Caribbean and comedy movies.

 

[Tekcirc]

1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Dark Knight
3. Lincoln
4. Hotoru no Haka (Grave of the fireflies)
5. Lord of the rings Trilogy
6. Matrix
7. Usual Suspects
8. Star wars series
9. Marvel movies (all are pretty entertaining)
10. Pixar movies (top would be Wall-E, inside out)

ohh ohh ohhh... and EADPOOL!!

 

[SandyB]

1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Dark Knight
3. Lincoln
4. Hotoru no Haka (Grave of the fireflies)
5. Lord of the rings Trilogy
6. Matrix
7. Usual Suspects
8. Star wars series
9. Marvel movies (all are pretty entertaining)
10. Pixar movies (top would be Wall-E, inside out)

ohh ohh ohhh... and EADPOOL!!

A lot of guys who i've come across who love Shwashank, consider it GOAT and diss pretty much any other movie that come into the discussion (Godfather, Goodfellas, Gone with the Wind, Psycho etc etc) . A sort of stuck up attitude. !

I haven't felt like watching it till now for that reason..

PS: I have a bit of a bias against feel good films though. I prefer my cinematic world to be Dark And/Or sci-fi

 

[Tekcirc]

A lot of guys who i've come across who love Shwashank, consider it GOAT and diss pretty much any other movie that come into the discussion (Godfather, Goodfellas, Gone with the Wind, Psycho etc etc) . A sort of stuck up attitude. !

I haven't felt like watching it till now for that reason..

PS: I have a bit of a bias against feel good films though. I prefer my cinematic world to be Dark And/Or sci-fi

I had watched most of the other movies before I saw Shawshank Redemption. Despite being told by everyone that its the best, when you watch it, you wont feel disappointed. Trust me! One doesn't need to diss other movies to say Shawshank touches the deep chords of the soul beautifully than others.

PS: The one movie I love watching again and again are the awesomest monologues from Lincoln. The speeches and delivery are beyond exceptional.

There is a whole list of dark movies we can talk about which I have enjoyed over the years.
One cannot ignore the amazing Kubrick Classics or Coppola's Apocalypse now.

 

[SandyB]

PS: The one movie I love watching again and again are the awesomest monologues from Lincoln. The speeches and delivery are beyond exceptional.

Daniel day Lewis is an exceptional talent . Those dialogues almost convince you as if he was the real Lincoln after all. Sounds funny , since there is no video footage on Lincoln. But the level of immersion into the character is so great that it fits our mental image of the real thing !

There is a whole list of dark movies we can talk about which I have enjoyed over the years.
One cannot ignore the amazing Kubrick Classics or Coppola's Apocalypse now.

I remember my first time watching "Clockwork Orange" a few years back. Even though the material was so dark and the material so perverse, it was so riveting . Way more than even the best Tarantino or Tim Burton (filmmakers known today for dark films) movies made you feel. He truly was a titan of cinema. !

 

[Tekcirc]

I remember my first time watching "Clockwork Orange" a few years back. Even though the material was so dark and the material so perverse, it was so riveting . Way more than even the best Tarantino or Tim Burton (filmmakers known today for dark films) movies made you feel. He truly was a titan of cinema. !

Burton is eccentric, Tarantino is more like a play or theatre. Truly dark ones are from David Lynch.

 

[SandyB]

Burton is eccentric, Tarantino is more like a play or theatre. Truly dark ones are from David Lynch.

Agree with that assessment . Burton gets too eccentric occasionally in his films to be truly great as a filmmaker.

Tarantino films on the other hand aren't necessarily about the medium of cinema, but old school - like a Great story being told. His movies /scripts could work just as well if they where plays or novels. He doesn't always rely on the visual medium..

But people like Kubrik , Spielberg and now Nolan, really explore the possibilities of the cinematic visual medium and push its limits (2001, Jaws, Inception etc ).. Which make them more interesting in my opinion.